Indeed leaders are the masters, but still…

Oct 25, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

I thank Dr. Desmond Thomas for his writing on what I shared re the Liz Truss development (“Why our MPS won’t stand up: integrity and the Constitution. A response to GHK Lall” – KN October 24). Indeed, I am totally with Dr. Thomas that there is that Constitution, and all that it vests in one man, and all that that has come to mean in parliament, in public life, in life itself in this country. Because of what the Guyana Constitution hangs over the head, as it was/is engineered, then I think that the substance of man and woman, civil servant and citizen, must adapt to meet troubled leaders. That is, if we are ever going to extricate ourselves from leadership sleazes. The unflinching outlook must be that when I take a stand, and no one else follows, I just keep going; and when others lack the courage or integrity to step forward, then there must still be moving forward alone, as necessary. It calls for personal integrity.

I think that by now Dr. Thomas could visualize where I am headed. So, the man, the leader, and that perverse but auspicious, intriguing but mesmerizing, construct called the Representative of the List looks at his inner human circle of comrades, and suddenly feels hemmed in, due to the alien sounds (their menacing), the agitated uneasiness (their misgivings), or the first frosts (their distancing), and takes decisive, final, and unchallenging action. Against one or the other upstart, the now uncontrolled rebellious; the List is one less. Then what? My position is more final: so what?

Take away the MP gift, with the perks, prestige, duty-free, and medieval mandarin’s power over the vast national estate, when taken to the extreme. My question, a challenge, remains unrelenting and unapologetic: so what? Likewise, I am a senior civil servant (or lowly clerk); pushed from job, cutoff from monthly money, the tax man cometh, and door slammed to block from entering any other place, public or private, to make a living, then I rise again and say with the profoundest stillness I am capable of: so what? A line has to be drawn somewhere, and somebody has to stand for something, at some time, for some reason, most likely the unacceptable that can’t be taken anymore.

Editor, pardon please, for I have one more for my fellow Guyanese (fellow Americans, too). As conscientious citizen, conscious and outspoken one, and this monstrosity, this utter revulsion of a human being, whoever so listed, makes his move and acts. Because the citizen, whether me or anyone else is a naysayer, a troublemaker, a condemner, talker, writer that registers at the heights and with the people. Because what is done can be a cause for more doubters, and more disbelievers. Thus, leader and Palace Guard try their hardest to take away dignity by freeing their official and parliamentary goons to assault using technology, or they send or inhibit the Guyana Police Force from going full out to wherever and whomever things lead or they limit what are the inalienable rights, constitutional rights, of each citizen to speak freely, to be contrary, then there still must be that same unswerving, unmoving, and unshrinking place: so what? Nothing should matter so much. Because whatever the weapon, they have their own people who flinch from them, and such leaders.

I couldn’t agree with Dr. Thomas more about Constitution. But I share that men make constitutions; not constitutions men. Constitutions may try to mold and manage men, but only to a point. And then again, only certain men when lines are crossed, when the objectionable, the inhuman, and the unjust are the order of the day all over. I give that superior constitution: the one drawn from harsh experience, crafted by tougher character, and which knows no deference, and is all undistilled insolence when such must be.

In closing, unchallengeable leaders can and will do their damnedest, their worst, their incredibly repulsive. This is when they must be challenged. This is where not just PPP MPs should be, but also PNC and AFC ones must be also; and so, too, every single civil servant and citizen still with some thread of light, the tiniest speck of truth left in him or her. Who knows where the example of one man, one woman, may lead or who else and how many will sit-up and say that what was done was wrong. I don’t know, and don’t care about anyone else. For me, this is where I stand.

Sincerely,

GHK Lall

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News